March 19, 2003
SADDAM -- A SOIXANTEHUITARD? (via Arts and Letters Daily):
It's Not Easy Being Mean (The Atlantic, 4/25/2002)
Not so long ago, Saddam was admired as a thoughtful, articulate, intelligent politician who was an asset to Iraq's reform-minded socialist-revolutionary party. Some of those who knew him in the sixties and seventies recall enjoying idealistic bull-sessions with him about Iraq's future. And as he gained power within the party, he began to implement a number of reforms to Iraq's health-care and educational systems that ... earned him praise in the West.A pathological sense of vanity, Bowden explains, has also played an important role in Saddam's quest for absolute power. He seems to want more than anything to go down in history as a great man ...
How many Western politicians does this sound like? Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 19, 2003 7:42 PM
Comments
What about his collection of books on Stalin and Hitler. Were these the spark of his idealism? Or was it his early training as political killer for the Baath Party? Yes he was immersed in dreams for a better future.
Posted by: Thomas J. Jackson at March 19, 2003 10:32 PM